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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23166358">Mutual Pining and Mirroring</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/NRGburst/pseuds/NRGmeta'>NRGmeta (NRGburst)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Snowflake Day 10: Share your love for a trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Pitch - Fandom, Pride and Prejudice (2005), The Martian (2015)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Animated GIFs, Essays, F/M, Meta, Mutual Pining, Narrative Devices, Nonfiction, mirroring</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 13:00:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>594</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23166358</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/NRGburst/pseuds/NRGmeta</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Why I love Mutual Pining and Mirroring</p><p>Originally posted on DW; rewritten and archived here for March Meta Matters 2020</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Chris Beck/Beth Johanssen, Elizabeth Bennet/Fitzwilliam Darcy, Ginny Baker/Mike Lawson, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Astrid Hofferson, Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Snowflake Day 10: Share your love for a trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1665250</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>March Meta Matters Challenge</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Mutual Pining and Mirroring</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p></p><div class="ljcut">
  <p>I love mutual pining. The whole I-want-you-so-bad-it-hurts-but-I-respect-what-you-want-more always gets me. The tension! The bitter circumstances keeping them from just up and blurting already! The lingering looks and repression! The misunderstandings making the reader go, "nooooooo"! The resolution leaving everyone laughing a bit at their own foolishness! </p>
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  <p>See Beth Johanssen here? I love how she's grinning and saying "Yes" to going back for Watney even though she's ALSO looking straight at Beck and SHAKING HER HEAD because FFS DUDE ANOTHER 19 MONTHS OF TENSION.</p>
  <p>I think my favorite meta on this state of longing is actually this hilarious set of tags about <em>Pride and Prejudice</em>:</p>
  <p> </p>
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  <p></p>
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    <p>
      
      <br/>
      
      <br/>
      <a href="http://agentausten.tumblr.com/post/140569241221/in-a-film-of-perfect-moments-the-hand-flex">x<br/></a>
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    <p></p>
    <div><p>#IN A FILM OF PERFECT MOMENTS THE HAND FLEX™ STANDS ALONE#BEATIFIED; REVERED AMONGST ITS PEERS#NEVER BEFORE OR SINCE HAS A PIECE OF CINEMA BEEN SO PURE; SO HEART WRENCHING; SO OBSCENELY EROTIC#IM GONNA KILL MATTHEW MCFADYEN#pride and prejudice#THE WAY HIS THUMB GRAZES OVER HER KNUCKLES PUT ME IN THE MOTHERFUCKING BIN#and the way she looks at him like ‘did he just’#and he looks back at her like ‘fuck. i did that…. we practically boned on the driveway’#BUT HONESTLY THIS ONE MOMENT IS MORE SEXUALLY CHARGED THAN ANY SEX SCENE OR ANY ACTUAL SEX#and okay like people who hate this movie#(YES. THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO HATE CINEMATIC MASTERPIECE PRIDE AND PREJUDICE 2005)#say that it is a bad adaption of the book because it focuses on the sexual tension too much#and not the like ~repressed nature of lizzie and darcy’s witty repartee#BITCH#ARE YOU SEEING THIS?#DO YOU SEE THIS GIFSET?#IS HE NOT REPRESSED ENOUGH FOR YOU?????#HE SPENDS THE WHOLE MOVIE DISGUSTED THAT HE’S ACCIDENTALLY CAUGHT FEELINGS#HE THRIVES ON HAVING TOUCHED HER HAND TO HAND FOR LIKE A MONTH!??#THEY GAZE AT EACH OTHER DURING CHURCH SERMONS#I’VE NEVER SEEN TWO PEOPLE SO REPRESSED IN MY WHOLE FUCKING LIFE#look JANE AUSTEN HERSELF would SWOON watching this movie#she would skype that dude she got engaged to for one night and ask him to roleplay reenact this hand flex with her#kinkshame the austen<br/>Tag credit: apriki</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p></p><div><p>XDDDD A lot of ships I like have this as an element even in canon, and a lot of what I write incorporates this trope, too. But here, have some recs with lots of palpable tension and competent people being obtuse when it comes to ~feelings!</p><p><a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/6772585">a thing we can't deny</a> by tremontaine (MCU, Natasha/Bucky, E)<br/>So what happens if you were married but both of you got brainwashed in the interim? Natasha's refrain of, "If he is happy then I am happy." also follows the 'if I repeat this enough I might actually convince myself' trope, too. </p><p><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/2606579/chapters/5807177">one equal temper</a> by hairgel (HTGAWM, Connor/Oliver, E, torture)<br/>This Spy AU is soooo good. Oliver thinks the pining is only on his part. (Spoilers: it's not.)</p><p><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/1160103">A Favourable Arrangement </a>by by grav_ity (The Hobbit, Fili/Sigrid, M)<br/>Arranged marriage leading to ~feelings actually might be a subset of this trope, now that I think about it. This is obviously AU as anything.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>As a ship-kink, what I loooove is mirroring to show just how perfectly in tune two people are. (Hi, Pacific Rim, I LOVE YOU.) This is usually shown visually so have some GIFs:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p></p><div><p>Fitzsimmons on AoS actually takes the cake at this and there are <a href="http://nrgburst.tumblr.com/post/136249693429/jayevies-mirroring-%CB%88m%C9%AAr%C9%99r%CB%90%C9%AA%C5%8B-the-behaviour">loads</a> of <a href="http://jemmasimmuns.tumblr.com/post/96278422619/no-you-no-actually-no-i-dont-think-so">sets</a> about it because IT IS A BEAUTIFUL THING.<br/> <br/><a href="http://stevenrogered.tumblr.com/post/68228610889/fitzsimmons-in-1x09">x<br/><br/><br/></a>Also Ginny/Mike on Pitch<br/><br/><a href="http://youaremyworldlois.tumblr.com/post/154237665139">x</a></p><p><br/><a href="http://mindykahling.tumblr.com/post/155141315630/hes-more-myself-than-i-am-emily-bront%C3%AB">x</a><br/><br/><br/><a href="http://inhonoredglory.tumblr.com/post/111571252544/furyoftime-the-future-leaders-of-berk-the">x</a></p><p>And Hiccup/Astrid from How to Train your Dragon<br/><br/><a href="http://howtotrainyourhiccup.tumblr.com/post/96587073669">x</a></p></div> </div> </div>
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Original post <a href="https://nrgburst.dreamwidth.org/84344.html">on my DW.</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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